Mikado Ryuugamine
Mikado Ryuugamine is the main protagonist of the light novel/manga/anime series, Durarara! and the Wonderland series. Appearance and Personality Appearance Mikado's physical appearance is one that doesn't really stand out from a crowd. He has short black hair, grayish-blue eyes, a rather soft expression and a small demeanor. Aside from a Raira uniform, his casual attire usually consists of a green and white jacket and jeans. Personality Initially, Mikado is portrayed as a polite, soft spoken boy, whom at times can be quite childish and naive. This is likely a result of his small town upbringing; as he moves to Ikebukuro he was amazed and overwhelmed by the sheer size and energy of the city, and thus he felt small and insignificant. He was bored of the average life he had previously led, and moved to Tokyo in search of adventure and revels in all the supernatural events that transpire around him despite the obvious danger. This desire for the unknown also causes Mikado to show utter disgust towards people he finds either boring (Hiroshi) or hypocritical (Namie). Despite his timid personality, he is shown to have a fairly strong will, and he does have moments where he openly expresses his opinion such as when he tells Anri she should be proud of trying to surpass Mika Harima. Mikado also has a strong moral center and actively speaks out against those who commit crimes or hurt others, even if it, more often than not, proves fruitless. Mikado also has a much darker side to his personality which is hinted at more strongly in the manga and light novels. Because of his strong desire to evolve, Mikado detests how "normal" he looks in comparison to his friends who all seem to have some kind of special ability or profession. This frustration reaches it's peak during the events of the Akane and Blue Squares Arcs, which causes Mikado to develop a much more cold-hearted demeanor. He believes that in order to protect his friends and continue to grow, he must seize power by force using any means necessary. While in this mindset, Mikado is much more ruthless and manipulative than he appears to be and is very capable at using intimidation to reach his goals. While it may initially seem like Mikado has split personalities, it is theorized by Aoba that the colder version of Mikado is his real personality while his timid side is the fake one. It has been debated by many fans that Mikado is either a yandere or a yangire due to common belief that he is fueled to protect and or in love with Anri or Masaomi. But it also has been highly favored by fans to be a mix of both in the form of Yandeguire/ Yandegire. Therefore being guided by both personalities to achieve their own separate goals, which also means upfront that Mikado suffers from split personality disorder. Backstory Mikado grew up in the small town of Saitama and led a very uneventful life. Most of Mikado's time was spent online chatting with others and listening to exciting stories from the big city that he would hear from his childhood friend, Masaomi Kida. At some point during this time, Mikado and a few online friends decided to create a fake online group called the Dollars as an elaborate prank to play on others. They passed out passwords to the site and made all kinds of outrageous claims about the gang's activities. Initially, the joke went as planned and people started joining the group despite it being a little more than a forum. However, the group continued to grow exponentially, even after they stopped giving the password. Furthermore, many people were using the Dollars as a scapegoat to commit crimes. Almost all the founders left the group as they feared it could be traced back to them while Mikado stayed to see what the outcome would be. Mikado initially tried to convince others on the forums to put a stop to the criminal activities but was mocked as a result. However, his ideas resonated with others and soon, many Dollars members were actively correcting the mistakes made by other members and even participated in community service activities. Because of this, Mikado continued to act as an admin of sorts for the site, occasionally making announcement but rarely giving orders as he believed the Dollars to be a group without restrictions as the original proposal said. At the behest of Masaomi, Mikado eventually decided to move to Ikebukuro and attend Raira Academy as a way to break the monotony of his life in the country. He also wished to see what the Dollars behaved like in the city as most of it's members were in Ikebukuro. Storyline History Waking Up in Wonderland Mikado is the first one to notice Chiharu Hashimoto after she spends months wandering the city after her death and resurrection. Later, she comes to him and tells him what happened to her and warns him about what's going to happen. Distorted Wonderland Mikado is studying with Masaomi, Anri, Noriko, and Chiharu at Noriko's apartment. Afterwards, they head to Russia Sushi for dinner. When two junior high boys break the doll sitting in the restaurant, Mikado's head filled with random, seemingly "fake" memories filled his head. When the attack was over, Chiharu told him to ignore it and that the memories were fake. Still, he couldn't get over something not being right with that wave of mental attack. Since then, Mikado didn't exactly know what to believe. Wonderland Carnival Mikado and his friends meet Ringo. She seemed to eager to get close to them. Mikado and Masaomi don't really latch onto her like the girls do. After her death, the boys don't remember anything about Ringo. Happy Wonderland Mikado is seen talking to somebody on his phone throughout the whole season. In the meantime, Mikado gets a strange e-mail from an unknown sender with the message, "April is the cruellest month, breeding". When he tried to e-mail the sender back asking who they were and why they sent the message, but it bounced back with a failure to deliver message. Turns out, Masaomi, Anri, Noriko, and Chiharu got the same message. After a quick search, Mikado came across T.S. Eliot's poem, The Waste Land. Later at school, Junko tells Mikado about a book that he had on hold at the library. Confused, he and Masaomi go to the library and fetch said book. Turns out it was titled Selected Poems of T.S. Eliot. As the boys look through the table of contents, Masaomi spots the poem, The Waste Land. When the boys turn to the page, a small folded up piece of paper fell out. Inside was written, "Angel Tadpole Heaven". Mikado notices that it's in his handwriting. However, he starts having strange visions, hearing low moans, and smelling bleach before passing out. Junko in the meantime starts to toy with Mikado and his friends. She asks Mikado about Chou Mori Institution, but then brushes it off saying that he is a good boy and "why would he end up in a place like that?" Later on at home, Mikado receives a box from an unknown sender filled with unmarked audio tapes and memory sticks. Through said items in the box, he learns that Noriko tried to kill herself and sometimes tried to starve herself to the point he and their friends could see bones through her skin. Turns out, his friends also got boxes from an unknown sender filled with unmarked audio tapes and memory sticks. During the Halloween special, Mikado listens to an audio tape with a voice from a patient in Chou Mori Institution. However, he doesn't have all of his tapes and memory sticks just like his friends don't have all of theirs because they were all mixed up in the five boxes. Earlier, he was seen talking to Masaomi about Noriko falling into despair again. Back in present day, Mikado and his friends meet up in the streets. Later on, Mikado starts watching video files with this doctor and his orderly/soon-to-be protegee performing experiments on a faceless patient named "Chirin". The videos creep him out, but he feels compelled to keep watching the Chirin videos as to get some answers as to why he keeps having vision about Chou Mori. As the phone calls from the stranger go on, Mikado begins to have flashbacks from Chirin's point of view. He feels the needles going into his left eye, tongue, and arms. Five days before Christmas, Mikado and his friends head down to Russia Sushi for dinner. Masaomi talks about inviting Saki out to spend Christmas with them. Simon walks over to their table, lights a small tray of Mnemosyne, and leaves the room. Under the influence of the odorless incense, Mikado remembers more of Chirin's memories and some of the patients of Chou Mori including a woman filled with an optimistic glow that gave Chirin a pleasing sense of comfort. In the early morning hours of Christmas, Masaomi calls Mikado saying that he had something that his friend needed to see. When Masaomi comes over with his memory disk, they watch videos about the beginning of Project Tadpole. Despite it making him sick, Mikado insists on watching them to find out who Chirin is. At that point, Yuka tracks him down and reveals the truth: Mikado is Chirin. At first, Mikado denies it as he begins breaking down. When she sprays Mnemosyne in his face, he begins to remember being taken to Chou Mori and meeting Kitano for the first time. After realizing the truth, Mikado fully breaks down and Yuka tells him that Project Tadole is just starting up again and she will be back for him. Deep Blue Wonderland Once Mikado calms down, Masaomi asks him all that he remembers before being committed Chou Mori. He can't remember too much, but he remembers seeing so much blood everywhere. He didn't know where he was or what happened. Mikado then remembers the police arresting him and asking him questions at the station. He breaks down again, but Masaomi tries to calm him down again. During the Christmas party, Mikado isn't holding up too well due to the extra dose of Mnemosyne. He ends up running into the bathroom and locking himself inside. Thanks to the running faucet, he remembers an orderly with crimson nails washing down his naked body with a cold wet cloth in a darkened room. She seemed to like staying on his genitals as washed him, talking about the naughty things she wanted to do to him. Above them, there was some writing that he couldn't make out. He could hear the moans of other different patients, but he couldn't see their faces. Unlike the rest of Chou Mori, this room smelt like blood, vomit, feces, and urine. Mikado gets so sick remembering all of this that he dry heaves in the toilet and yells at Masaomi to leave him alone. On the day of his awakening, Mikado started suffering from dizzy spells, flashbacks to his time in Chou Mori, and pain in his left eye. It gets worse as the day goes on. Around seven in the evening, Izaya sends him a text telling him to cover up his right eye and look around. Against his better judgement, Mikado complied. To his horror, he saw everyone's inner demons perched on their shoulders. Kitano calls him and congratulates him on his awakening. He also tells him that he needed to work on his powers before his body rotted from the inside and he would die. Later on, Mikado senses that he and Masaomi are being followed. The boys try to run, but Satoshi Aida catches up to them. After a short exchange, the younger boy pulled out a knife, threatening to kill Mikado to get his life back. However, Masaomi fought him and took away the knife. Satoshi refused to stay down and ran after Mikado with broken glass in his hand. Masaomi stabbed him. Mikado tried to contain Satoshi's bleeding after the younger boy pulled out the knife. Satoshi's final words leave the older tadpole shaken along with his death. Aoba turns to Mikado when the Blue Squares are starting to commit suicide. The younger boy shows him the Yatsufusa video and Mikado can't bring himself to finish it. Junko appears and pulls him away from Aoba to talk with him. She warns Mikado that he shouldn't be hanging around Aoba because he was beneath him and that he won't have long to live. The nurse then asks him how his powers are developing. Mikado covers up his right eye and asks about her mother. Junko quickly pushes him out the infirmary because of it. It is revealed, that Mikado saw Masaomi's inner demons while he was asleep. This demon was surrounding Saki and her impending death. It hurt Mikado inside to see such a worry. Later, Aoba comes over to his apartment and they investigate Deathvine and try to find out who was posting the Blue Square suicide videos. When they get on the site, they are in for a rude shock: a new video with the Nitari twins. Mikado finds that the poster's name is Lady Death and her account is set to private. He also had no idea that Lady Death had also joined the Dollars chatroom. In "Tadpoles", Mikado ends up as a test subject again in Tadpole's first new experiment. For seventy-two, each of the tadpoles lose one sense. Mikado loses his tadpole instincts and can't sense others like him and visa versa. He still had his powers, however. He goes outside to be alone. The boy has decided not to tell Masaomi about his powers or what's going on. His thoughts are interrupted when he meets Emily Akimoto for the first time. She's in the same situation he is only she is blind for the experiment. After talking to her for a little bit, he decides that she could be an ally to him in Tandeki's games. As he and his friends talk to Emily in his apartment, Mikado makes a decision on how to deal with the rest of the experiment and buys an eye patch. Mikado weighs his options with his plan. On the one hand he would be able to see who was a tadpole or not, but he would have to see Anri, Noriko, and Chiharu's inner demons as well. With this in mind, Mikado puts on the eye patch over his right eye and walks home. It turns out to be hell with a sea of inner demons around. Still, he won't take the eye patch off. As he walks him, his left eye starts to hurt and leak out a black inky substance. By the time he gets home, Mikado takes off the eye patch. Vision in his left eye is blurry and he has a headache because he overdid. In this moment of rest, he remembers being back in Chou Mori with Etsuko pulling an IV in his arm. For twelve hours, the drugs flowed into his body, leaving him with the side effects of shortness of breath. Back in present day, Mikado notices two girls standing across the street, staring at him. He runs over to them and notices that they are tadpoles. They introduce themselves as Kohaku Kimio and Nami Shono. They end up at his apartment with Emily and everyone else. Masaomi jokes about being surrounded by so many cute girls. Mikado is worried about telling his friend the whole truth. Instead, he says that they will save Saki from dying. Realizing that he is freaking Masaomi, he makes him promise that he won't freak out if he told him the whole truth after saving Saki. When he hears that Aoba was attacked and ended up in the hospital, Mikado goes to visit him. Prior to that, Junko tells him that it would be pointless after he demands answers from her. The boy doesn't listen and goes to visit Aoba anyway. But when he gets there, the younger boy doesn't remember him at all. Back at his apartment, Kohaku and Mikado share a short exchange about their returning memories and their powers. Then, he gets another call from Kitano. Mikado demands an explanation for Aoba not knowing him anymore and the deaths of the Blue Squares. Kitano simply tells him that they were just filthy animals that needed to be slaughtered and that he shouldn't be associated with them because he is a higher breed now. He adds that Mikado needs to be more concerned about himself and his "brothers and sisters". Before Mikado could ask anymore questions, Kitano says that it's none of his concern and hangs up on him. Mikado tries to contact Aoba over the phone, but the younger boy hung up on him, telling him to never talk to him again because it was creepy. The tadpole boy wonders if he should tell Masaomi about his powers. Satoshi appears in his head to taunt him about how Mikado will end up alone and hated like him. Masaomi asks him who he was talking to. When the tadpole tells him it was Satoshi, his best friend reminds him that the younger tadpole is dead. Mikado breaks down and shows Masaomi his power. He breaks down and tells him everything. When he is finished, he collapses onto the floor and pulls himself into the fetal position. Masaomi picks him up and holds him into his arms, vowing to stay by him and get him back to normal. As the month goes on, Masaomi starts to suspect that Mikado might be the victim of gaslighting. He begins to question his friend about how he ended up in Chou Mori. Mikado thinks that Masaomi is believing that he's making up things about him ending up in that mental hospital as he starts to remember more about his time there. Masaomi calms him down and tells him that he believes him and that he might have been a victim of gaslighting. In the season finale, the tadpoles' senses go stronger and Mikado, Emily, Nami, and Kohaku catch guys from Nebula spying on them. When Shinra, Shingen, Tetsu, Emilia, and Akiko join their small group, Shinra has to tell the tadpoles what is going on. When the doctor says the effects of the experiment can't be reserved, Mikado remembers Satoshi's words. Bamboo House Mikado asks Masaomi where he had been and notices his best friend crying at the latter returns from the Bamboo House. Chirin and Project Tadpole In an undisclosed time in October, Mikado ended up in an alley with his clothes covered in blood and completely in a daze. Since the police couldn't get any information about what happen out of him, he ended up being committed in Chou Mori Institution. Kitano was assigned as his therapist after being committed. In the season finale of Happy Wonderland, it was revealed that Mikado was a test subject in Kitano and Etsuko's Project Tadpole. He ended up being injected with many needles with different drugs. During this time, he was given the name "Chirin". In November during another treatment, Mikado had his first out-of-body experience. In the empty space he meets a wolf girl named Uzuki. She toys with him while he tries to get answers from her. Finally, she helps him get back into his body. Sometime in January, Mikado/Chirin managed to get out of his bindings from his bed and try to escape. He got as far as a hallway bathroom. When the patient looked in the mirror for the first time in months, he felt distant, but then Mikado/Chirin noticed that his left eye had turned bright green. Moments later, Yuka found him and noticed the change herself. She took him to Kitano and the therapist was overjoyed. He said that the experiment was working. Yuka and the doctor took Mikado/Chirin back to his bed and Kitano covered up the boy's right eye with an eye patch. He said that he wanted the patient to work on the left eye and didn't want it to be lazy. In March, Mikado/Chirin was sitting in the activity room when he noticed Satoshi was getting beat up by Roc Segawa. He felt that somebody should help him. Then something inside of him made Mikado get up push Roc off of Satoshi. However, the orderly beat him up until Etsuko came out of her office and broke up the fight. Tadpole Powers Mikado/Chirin has the ability to see people's inner demons. He sees them when he covers up his right eye. He can also sense when other tadpoles are nearby. MikadoEyepatch2.jpg MikadoEyepatch.jpg Relationships Masaomi Kida Main Article: Masaomi Kida Mikado and Masaomi had been friends ever since grade school. After Masaomi moved away to Ikebukuro they e-mailed each other every day. Then Mikado moves to Ikebukuro because Masaomi asks him to. In Ikebukuro Masaomi shows Mikado around and tells him about the people in the city. In the Yellow Scarves arc Masaomi is trying to make sure that Mikado won't be dragged into the mess until Masaomi figures out Mikado is the leader of the Dollars. When Masaomi gets disbanded as the leader of the Yellow Scarves he is also told about the Yellow Scarves going to hurt Mikado so Masaomi runs into the base in order to save his friend and show that he is not afraid anymore. When Masaomi is beaten severely Mikado holds him up trying to make sure Masaomi won't die. In later light novels Masaomi is trying to turn Mikado back to normal because of the Dollars and Blue Squares forming and Mikado not acting like himself. Anri Sonohara Main Article: Anri Sonohara Mikado and Anri met as fellow classmates/class representatives and quickly developed a friendship because of it. They, along with Masaomi would frequrenlty hang out after school around the city. In the light novels, after Masaomi leaves the city, Anri begins to call Mikado by his first name and the two of them begin to spend much more time together to the point where most in the school assume they have started dating. Indeed, they have even become somewhat famous around the school for it. However, they both deny these sentiments and insist on being only friends. From the beginning, it is clear that Mikado has interest in being more than just friends with Anri and has made attempts to further this goal at varying points. However, his naturally timid nature often prevents him from expressing his emotions clearly. After Masaomi leaves, Mikado decides to avoid entering into an actual relationship with Anri because he wants everything to be as it was for Masaomi when he finally returns. From Anri's side of the relationship, it's clear that Mikado's (admitedly somewhat feeble) advances towards her are starting to have an effect as she is shown blushing during her date with Mikado in episode 25 but, like Mikado, she doesn't want their relationship to advance too far but for reasons detailed in the section below. In chapter 4 of Durarara!! SH's first novel, it is revealed that Mikado and Anri have officially began dating. Noriko Ishikawa Main Aritcle: Noriko Ishikawa Noriko is another friend of Mikado's. Just like Chiharu and everyone else in their circle of friends, Mikado worries about Noriko. However, maybe they might have met somewhere else before? Chiharu Hashimoto Main Article: Chiharu Hasimoto Chiharu is another friend in his group. Mikado was the first one to notice her alive after she was in a period of wandering isolation. She warns him with the phrase, "Don't let the devil get me". Katsuhiro Kitano Main Article: Katsuhiro Kitano Kitano is Mikado's former therapist at Chou Mori Institution. The old doctor enrolled him in the Tadpole Project. In fact, Kitano calls Mikado his "proudest work". Now, he wants the boy back to restart Project Tadpole. Celty Sturluson Main Article: Celty Sturluson Kyohei Kadota Main Article: Kyohei Kadota Izaya Orihara Main Article: Izaya Orihara Izaya and Mikado met on the internet. However, Mikado does not know who 'Kanra' is in real life at first. Mikado met Izaya face to face on Mikado's second day in Ikebukuro. Izaya knows that Mikado is the leader of the Dollars, but promises not to sell the information to anyone, however he doesn't keep this promise exactly. Instead of selling the information, he gives it away to Kida Masaomi for free. In the manga Izaya tells Mikado that it wasn't a coincidence that he met him - he was looking for him. Later in the novels, Mikado begins to rely on Izaya's information and advice. This is similar to how Masaomi depended on Izaya to lead the Yellow Scarves which eventually led to his downfall; Vol. 7 foreshadows that Mikado will be led down a dark path because of Izaya. However, in the same novel, Aoba reveals that both he and Izaya have grossly underestimated Mikado. Aoba Kuronuma Main Article: Aoba Kuronuma Initially, Mikado and Aoba got along rather well. Aoba appeared to view Mikado as a sort of mentor to him and would frequently ask him questions about Ikebukuro as well as the Dollars. This was later proven to be a front when Aoba revealed himself to be the leader of the Blue Squares. Aoba simply wanted to get closer to Mikado so that he could use him to revive the Blue Squares to their former glory. When Mikado's dark side shows itself, Aoba's condescending tone is replaced by a more fearful one. Although Mikado is acting as the leader of the Blue Squares, it becomes very clear that he isn't a mere scapegoat for the police like Ran was. Aoba acts as Mikado's second in command, and they mutually benefit from the other. During the last volume, Aoba states that he truly did want to 'swim together with Mikado-senpai' and that they'd widened the tank for the Blue Squares to swim in, considerably. Aoba's initial fear of Mikado's darker nature had been shortlived, and turned into something akin to respect. He makes sure to tell Masaomi and Anri that, when he visits Mikado in the hospital. However, after having received a warning from Akabayashi, Aoba assures Mikado's friends that he will not be dragging him back to any dangerous activities. In Durarara!! SH, they are still shown to be on friendly terms with one another. Trivia * His mother's name is Hiromi (ひろみ), while his father's name is probably read as Ryūgamine Tatsuya (竜ヶ峰竜也) (there is no official romanization for his parents' names). * His given name's kanji usually read as Teijin instead of simply Mikado. * His hometown is in Saitama. * He ranked 1st in Raira Academy's entrance test, tying with Anri. Anri has developed a small admiration for Mikado because of this, although it is not noticed much. * He's born with 2982 gram weight. * His favorite subject is IT when his least favorite subject is P.E. as he states that he's weak at sports. * His favorite quote is "Supreme rule of life is to adapt without compromising," the words of a German Philosopher, Georg Simmel. * He has the same name of the European version of pocky. * A man simply known as the photographer who appears in the very first volume of Baccano appears to live in the apartment right next to Mikado's. The ending of the first volume takes place in present day Ikebukuro as the photographer returns from his vacation in New York. * His password for his Dollars account is "baccano", as can be seen in the anime. * He sang Gakuen Tengoku in the rapping CD. * In Durarara!! SH volume 1, it is revealed that he is now dating Anri. * His hobby according to the official DVD 1 released character profile card is: internet surfing. * His favorite food according to the official DVD 1 released character profile card is skewer-grilled chicken in miso sauce. * His least favorite food according to the official DVD 1 released character profile card is anything that's too hard. * "Mikado Ryugamine" is written "竜ヶ峰帝人" in Kanji. First, his given name "Mikado" means "emperor". As his surname "Ryugamine", it means "dragon's mountains". The second character "ヶ" is rare for surnames. When it is used, it is often noble's name, so it sounds classic. And also it has 5 syllables, usually Japanese surname has 3 or 4 syllables, so it is a slightly odd. The more syllables it has, the more it sounds classic. Category:Wonderland Characters Category:Protagonists Category:Human Category:Chou Mori Patients Category:Male Characters Category:Canon Characters Category:Characters Category:Tadpoles